Soft tissue

Abstract

Soft throughdried tissues, which are sufficiently soft to serve as premium bathroom tissues, can be made without the use of a Yankee dryer. The typical Yankee functions of building machine direction and cross-machine direction stretch are replaced by a wet end rush transfer and the throughdrying fabric design, respectively. It is particularly advantageous to form the tissue with chemimechanically treated fibers in at least one layer. The resulting tissues have high bulk (about 6 cubic centimeters per gram or greater) and low stiffness.

We claim: 
     
       1. A method for making a tissue comprising: (a) forming an aqueous suspension comprising paper-making fibers consisting essentially of hardwood fibers;   (b) dispersing the fibers in the aqueous suspension;   (c) diluting the suspension of dispersed paper-making fibers and feeding the diluted suspension to a paper machine forming section;   (d) noncompressively dewatering the diluted suspension in the forming section to form a wet web;   (e) rush transferring the wet web from the forming section to a transfer fabric;   (f) transferring the wet web from the transfer fabric to a drying fabric, wherein the wet web is conformed to the contours of the drying fabric; and   (g) drying the wet web to form a tissue.   
     
     
       2. A method of making a tissue comprising: (a) making an aqueous suspension comprising paper-making fibers;   (b) noncompressively dewatering the aqueous suspension to form a wet web having a consistency of at least about 10% solids;   (c) rush transferring the wet web to a first fabric having a relatively smooth surface contour;   (d) removing the wet web from the first fabric;   (e) transferring and conforming the wet web to the surface contours of a second fabric; and   (f) drying the wet web, while supported on the second fabric, by a noncompressive method to form a tissue.   
     
     
       3. A method of making a tissue comprising: (a) making an aqueous suspension comprising paper-making fibers;   (b) noncompressively dewatering the aqueous suspension to form a wet web having a consistency of at least about 10% solids;   (c) rush transferring the wet web to a transfer fabric;   (d) transferring the wet web to a throughdrying fabric whereby the wet web is macroscopically rearranged to conform to the surface of the throughdrying fabric; and   (e) throughdrying the wet web to form a tissue.   
     
     
       4. A method of making a tissue comprising: (a) making a first aqueous suspension comprising paper-making fibers consisting essentially of dispersed hardwood fibers;   (b) making a second aqueous suspension comprising paper-making fibers consisting essentially of softwood fibers;   (c) adding at least about 0.05% softening agents to the first aqueous suspension;   (d) diluting the aqueous suspensions and feeding the diluted aqueous suspensions to a multilayer forming section of a tissue-making machine;   (e) in the forming section forming the first aqueous suspension into a first layer of a wet web and forming the second aqueous suspension into a second layer of the wet web;   (f) noncompressively dewatering the wet web;   (g) rush transferring the dewatered wet web to a transfer fabric;   (h) removing the wet web from the transfer fabric and transferring the web to a throughdrying fabric; and   (i) drying the wet web while supported by the throughdrying fabric to form a tissue.